Gertrude's Closet
by Ms. Izzy
Summary: Sequel to "Irit's Daughter." Rido confronts his mother about their family history.


Rido was staring at her again.

The queen tried to ignore her eldest as her husband conducted court. Besides, Rido staring at her was nothing new.

What _were_ new were the hateful looks he kept shooting at their father. The two had never been amicable, not even when Rido was small, but such hatred was beyond their old antagonism.

Her husband gestured towards her. She rose and took his offered hand. As the two left the hall, she pretended she hadn't seen the mix of disgust and bitter lust in her son's eyes.

---

She was alone in her room when he barged in. She was reading; little Haruka had just been put down for the day. Her much older son, though, seemed to set the very particles around him wheeling in a desperate tempest. Perhaps he was; she had little time to oversee his lessons while caring for the new baby.

She set her book down, ready to admonish him for his poor manners. But as soon as she met his eyes he began to speak.

"How can you let him touch you?" he asked in a tremulous voice.

She had been expecting this. There had always been an unhealthy attachment on his part.

"He is my husband," she soothingly replied. "It is my duty—"

"It's disgusting!" exploded Rido. "I see you shudder every time he embraces you! How can you stand it?"

"It is my duty—" she raised her voice against his "—to keep the Kuran bloodline pure. I must bear the children who will carry on our line."

"But why you?" he grated out. "Why must it be you?"

She calmed herself. She must make him understand duty. This boy would one day be king.

"My husband's last queen died with only one child: a girl. It is the greatest responsibility of a queen to provide her husband with an heir. I have succeeded where she failed."

Rido's anger seemed to have turned coldly calculating.

"But you still failed," he spit out.

Her heart stilled for but a moment before beating a tattoo in double-time.

Rido saw his opening.

"Yes, _Mother_. Two sons, but no daughter. You must whore yourself again to that bastard, mustn't you? How much more of his touch can you stand? How many more times—"

"_Stop it!_" she screamed, exploding out of her chair.

The triumph in his eyes seemed to rip at her insides.

"I shall do my duty. I must ensure the continuation of the Kuran line." Her voice would have seemed strong if there hadn't been the slightest of tremors on the word "duty."

"And where is the sister that should be my rightful bride?" Rido asked cruelly. "You claimed that the old queen had a daughter. Hasn't that beast of a king—"

"Do not refer to my husband in such a manner!"

"I shall call him what I wish!"

"He is your father!" the queen admonished, glad to be regaining some ground.

"He is _your_ father!" he routed her viciously. "He is the blackguard that would rape his own daughter so that his _precious_ dynasty should remain clean."

Rido realized that he had made a misstep when he saw the look in the queen's eyes.

"Is that what you really think, my dearest boy? That I was the victim?"

She approached him as she began her counterattack. Her voice was a bitter parody of the one that had soothed childhood nightmares.

"It was I who seduced _him_, my sweet child. I got the man drunk and led him to his bed. I stripped the clothes from his body before removing my own. I climbed onto him and—"

He grabbed her arms and pulled her roughly to him. She had to crane her neck to meet his eyes. When had her son grown so tall?

"_Stop_," he whispered in a pained voice.

Her eyes softened.

"You must understand that this was my choice. I made the bed that I now lie in," she whispered back in a comforting tone.

"Even though that bed is our father's?"

"Even then."

She broke away from his now loosened grip. She grabbed her child's hands and kept them flat to keep him from accidentally cutting his palms with his nails. It wouldn't do for the court to get curious at the scent of Prince Rido's blood.

"You should be my wife," he said pitifully.

She hushed him and caressed his face.

Abruptly, he leaned down and kissed her. She let him.

---

She took care to lay with her husband soon after. She never let herself wonder about the daughter born later that year.


End file.
